Re: <nettime> England leaves Europe

[Keith Hart <keith@thememorybank.co.uk>]

   "It's about time, Brian"

   But time for what? The political agenda that counts in Britain now is
   decentralisation, the break up of the United Kingdom and of London's
   dominance, led by the Scots of course, but with the reunification of
   Ireland now a distinct possibility. There are plenty of regions ripe
   for devolution -- the West Country, Yorkshire, Tyneside. But what is
   London? Along with Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and other Labour
   cities, London led the vote to remain. London is not, however, the City
   which played a cool hand in this decision.

   Don't confuse the City of London wiih neoliberalism. It has been immune
   from legal constraint since splitting with Westminster 600 years ago.
   After losing a colonial empire, it built an illegal offshore empire on
   a rump of former island colonies. This forced the US to do something
   similar domestically (Delaware, Wyoming etc). For some time now
   Europe's political leaders and financial cities have threatened to
   abolish the City's immunity. That was the issue. The City wanted out,
   but didn't wish to make it obvious. See Nicholas Shaxson's Treausure
   Islands for the gruesome story of the offshore system and the City's
   part in it.

   The Tory party has been in bed with the City for a century. Expect
   Cameron to be rewarded lavishly for delivering the goods. Many in the
   remain camp claim that Downing Street curbed their efforts during the
   campaign, preventing them from attacking Gove and Johnson directly.
   They thought this was for the sake of Tory unity, but maybe shackling
   the yes campaign was always Cameron's priority, as was his 'mistake' in
   calling a referendum.

   This was the greatest empire ever assembled and the UK was its vehicle.
   The dream of (financial) empire has not died. We are in for some
   serious fighting over what becomes of the United Kingdom. I have long
   argued that Britain is the most ustable polity in the world. Brexit
   pulled the trigger on that scenario, but it isn't mainly about Europe
   as such, at least only in a negative sense for the City.

   Keith

   On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 5:54 PM, Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com> wrote:

     On 06/23/2016 11:42 PM, Alex Foti wrote:

     � Either We Do Europe Now or We're Dead - meaning the chauvinists
     and the xenophobes will bring us back to the European nation-state
     that defends itself against migrants and any threat to its supposed
     cultural identity,�

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